I am still working out the details on what I can and can't post in terms of reviews. Since so much of what we learn for ophthalmology is through images and pattern recognition, I would love to provide tons of pictures and articles for each major topic in ophthalmology. Unfortunately, for now I have to remain somewhat reserved so that I don't end up in copyright trouble. For now, I will post articles of mnemonics I created to help me remember differential diagnoses or concepts, general information that I can easily cite, etc.
Still, I think that in order to organize the information, it is pretty well-accepted to categorize the topics by subspecialty and content. I will try to keep this page updated as I continue to build up the review library. Again, I would love this to become a collaborative project, so if you have tips and hints that you would be willing to share, please leave a comment or e-mail me!
Basic Principles (AKA The Boring Stuff)
I don't think I'm the only one who had difficulty reading through a lot of the topics covered in these sections. Regardless of the source of that knowledge (the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Basic and Clinical Science Course, Kanski's Clinical Ophthalmology, etc.), I honestly wasn't sure how useful or clinically relevant this information would be. I think most people would agree that memorizing random dimensions is not really useful unless they can be contextualized into something that is actually helpful (such as memorizing the Spiral of Tilleaux, which I've actually seen as a useful explanation for some people with odd strabismus patterns).
General Medicine
Fundamentals of Ophthalmology
Optics
Core Ophthalmology (AKA Clinically-Relevant Ophthalmology)
I view these sections as basically essential reading - if one wishes to feel comfortable with most conditions in ophthalmology. For those who are going into practices that don't see a ton of pathology or may be practicing in some sort of niche (whether that be refractive surgery, cataract surgery, retina, cornea, neuro, etc.), being a master at every subject may not necessarily be required. But in terms of getting a good broad familiarity of ophthalmology, having at least some knowledge of these subjects can really help out when you get that one challenging atypical patient and you're thinking, "what the heck is this, and who do I need to send it to?" Plus the board exams test over these topics, so you'll at least have to know the minimum amount to pass the tests.
Oculoplastics/Orbit
Cornea/External Disease
Glaucoma
Retina/Vitreous
Uveitis
Neuro-Ophthalmology
Pediatric Ophthalmology/Strabismus
Extra Credit
I'm sure that plenty of people are going to argue that these sections are just as important as the core subjects. My apologies to my ophthalmic pathology and ocular oncology friends - I put those subjects in the "Extra Credit" section because from a practical clinical standpoint, a ton of the material covered in these specialties overlap with the core subjects. And so while it's my personal opinion that these sections are an absolutely valuable way to review and understand the material better, I would say that most people would probably be able to pass their board exams and be excellent ophthalmologists without having studied pathology or oncology in depth.
I also included the BCSC lens/cataract and refractive surgery sections here as well. Refractive surgery and cataract surgery, which probably represent the majority of procedures that we perform as ophthalmologists, are not taught very well from a textbook standpoint. I viewed these books as excellent references when I didn't understand conceptual aspects to cataract surgery such as the types of viscoelastic, pump models, etc., as well as learning about all of the post-operative complications and how to manage them. I did not consult the books as tutorials on "how to perform cataract surgery" or "how to perform refractive surgery." The test questions covering these sections are typically either super obscure or super obvious. So while I agree that these sections are still very important, for testing and review I would put less emphasis on memorizing these topics.
Ophthalmic Pathology
Ocular Oncology (Intraocular and Periocular Tumors)
Lens and Cataract
Refractive Surgery
Do you have a different way you like to organize this information in your head? Do you have study tips you want to share? Leave a comment!